“the anticipated one-time dividend from the spin of health care at leverage of three to three and a half times EBITDA and 19.9% retained stake will provide additional financial flexibility.”

In context

“ng focus on working capital management, especially inventory. Inventory was down over $200 million sequentially and $550 million year-on-year as we benefit from the power of daily management and data and data analytics to speed up inventory terms. As always, there is more we can do and will do to continue to realize benefits from our actions as we move forward. Adjusted capital expenditures were $367 million in the quarter as we continue to invest in growth, productivity, and sustainability. During the quarter, we returned $828 million to shareholders via dividends. Net debt at the end of Q3 stood at $10.8 billion, a reduction of 11% year-on-year. Our business segments continue their long history of robust cash flow generation. In addition, our proven access to capital markets, along with the anticipated one-time dividend from the spin of health care at leverage of three to three and a half times EBITDA and 19.9% retained stake will provide additional financial flexibility. This, combined with our existing strong capital structure, provides us with the ability to continue to invest in the business, return capital to shareholders, and meet the cash flow needs related to ongoing legal matters. Now, please turn to slide nine for our business group performance. Starting with our safety and industrial business, which posted sales of $2.8 billion or down 5.8% organically, this result included a year-on-year headwind of approximately $130 million, or 4.3 percentage points, due to last year's COVID-related disposable respirator decline and exit of our operations in Russia. Excluding this, Q3 adjusted organic sales were down 1.5%. Personal safety was down high single digits due to last year's COVID-related disposable respirator comp. Excluding disposable respirators,”